1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to collaborative computing and more particularly to the exchange of message content containing colloquialisms in a collaborative environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic mail delivery systems represent the most widely used application in the world today. Electronic mail (e-mail) represents a giant leap forward in respect to global interpersonal communications in that prior to electronic mail, individuals primarily communicated via telephone, facsimile and post. In consequence of the widespread use of e-mail, individuals now expect near instant delivery of text, and even imagery, audio and video, without incurring the delay typical of the postal system, or the expense associated with telephony and fax technologies.
The recent rapid development of the Internet has led to advanced modes of communication which surpass that of e-mail. Using the Internet as a backbone, individuals worldwide can converge in real-time in cyberspace to share ideas, documents and images in a manner not previously possible through conventional telephony and video conferencing. To facilitate collaboration over the Internet, a substantial collection of technologies and protocols have been assembled to effectively deliver information in near real-time over the single data communications medium of the Internet. These technologies include several human-to-human collaborative environments such as instant messaging and persistent chat rooms.
Current messaging systems allow users to communicate through a mostly textual interface. In this regard, though individuals around the globe can communicate in near instantaneous fashion, much of the interaction if not the entire interaction must be limited to the textual words included in the message. As a result, it can be difficult to ascertain the full context of a conversation in a message where only the text of the message can be used to establish the context of the conversation.
The difficulties in understanding the context of a textual conversation can become compounded where the participants to a textual conversation hail from different geographic regions, cultures or even different nations. In particular, the colloquialisms associated with one culture or nationality cannot always translate well when expressed exclusively in a textual medium. For example, the phrase, “Top of the day” can be understood to one who hails from London, but not to one whose first language is not English. Accordingly, the use of colloquialisms in electronic messaging can impair clear communication.